


Designation: Havemercy; Classification: Mark-3

by epithalamium



Category: Havemercy Series - Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Adamo and Royston are co-pilots, Gen, Incest if you squint, Iseul Mamoru and Kouje in a Jaeger threesome, Rook is probably not swearing enough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:25:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epithalamium/pseuds/epithalamium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘Still, don’t you wanna know what it’s like?’</p>
<p>‘Having someone inside your head and vice versa?’ said Thom, raising his eyebrows. ‘Like getting fucked in the brains, I’d think. Without lubrication.’</p>
<p>Volstovic Cycle crossover with Pacific Rim (obviously). Rook and Thom's first neural handshake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Designation: Havemercy; Classification: Mark-3

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Designation: Havemercy; Classification: Mark-3  
> Characters/Pairings: Rook, Thom, Adamo, Royston, Jeannot, Ghislain, Iseul, Kouje, Mamoru, Malahide  
> Rating: PG-13 for language  
> Disclaimer: Havemercy and all related characters is to Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. Pacific Rim and all related characters is to Guillermo del Toro, Travis Beacham, and associates.  
> Summary: Rook and Thom's first neural handshake  
> Word count: 4,000~  
> Notes/Warnings: Thanks to [nerakrose](http://archiveofourown.org/users/nerakrose) for the beta (and for not giving up even when I sent her a file named 'Pacific Rimming'). All remaining mistakes are mine. 
> 
> Because I have a sieve-like brain, I barely remember anything about the movie aside from 'amazing'. The Pacific Rim wikia was extremely helpful, as well as [Travis Beacham's Tumblr](http://travisbeacham.tumblr.com/). Travis Beacham actually offers up a lot of info about drifting and the like.

*

1.

The very first time Rook saw her, he fell in love.

He had no actual business in the Shatterdome: that was Thom, whose studies on the workings of the human brain proved very useful in the newly broken field of neural drift. Thom had asked Rook if he wanted to come along, not really expecting Rook to say yes--but if you can expect a person to fall a hundred metres down from the head of a Jaeger in a fit of excitement, or get squashed by falling mechanical debris because they weren’t paying attention, you’d expect that person to be Thom, and Rook reckoned it was too early in the game to lose his brother yet again. They’d just found each other after twenty one years of thinking the other dead, after all, and Rook was still getting used to having someone make breakfast for him. 

The recent rise in Kaiju attacks wasn’t helping the odds of Thom’s survival either, although the fatalities had lessened some since the Jaegers got into the business of killing the monsters off; too bad the same couldn’t be said about the chances of Thom actually snapping out of his own rainbow world of big words and intellectual pre-occupation.

And so they went to the Shatterdome together, Thom all flushed and wide-eyed at the prospect of helping mankind and learning something new to boot, and Rook wondering idly if they’d have enough time to stop at a pub and get something to drink on the way home--if they’d actually make it home. It was hard to know, what with Thom forgetting to eat and sleep when faced with a new exciting problem. One more reason to tag along and make sure he didn’t collapse from fatigue and exhilaration. 

‘That would be Havemercy,’ Thom had said to Rook, pointing with his chin as he furiously scribbled notes on his clipboard files. ‘One of the recently finished Mark 3 models, and Dr Sarah Fleet’s masterwork. She’s rather amazing, don’t you think?’

‘She’s fucking beautiful,’ said Rook. There wasn’t a lot that he and Thom agreed on, but it seemed Thom knew to appreciate beauty when he saw it.

‘I wouldn’t quite say that,’ said Thom, pushing his glasses back up his snub nose with the tip of his pen. ‘I mean, she’s brilliant and all, but I didn’t think you went for that sort of thing.’

Rook was pretty used to Thom not making any sort of sense, that was the first thing you found out about him seconds after making his acquaintance, but he could still surprise you even when you thought you knew all his tricks.

‘What the fuck are you talking about?’

‘Dr Sarah Fleet,’ said Thom, sounding like he was wondering if his brother had sustained a serious head injury when he was a kid. Rook was wondering the same. ‘We were talking about Dr Sarah Fleet.’ 

‘What the hell do I care about some old bitch?’ said Rook. ‘ _I_ was talking about Havemercy.’

‘She’s certainly a beauty,’ someone said, from behind them. Rook spun back, irritated that the newcomer had come so close without him being aware of the fact. Thom turned around as well, his back snapping to attention as he took in the big, bearded man standing several feet away from them. 

‘Chief Sergeant Adamo,’ said Thom. 

‘But don’t let Dr Fleet hear you talking about her in that way,’ Adamo went on, giving Rook the hairy eyeball. ‘If that big head of yours is more than just for show.’

‘Chief Sergeant,’ Thom went on, as if Adamo hadn’t just insulted the size of his brother’s head. ‘This is my brother, Rook--’

At that, the expression on Adamo’s face turned calculating, which Rook didn’t like any better than the hairy eyeball. ‘A change of heart after all, doctor?’

‘Just Thom, Chief Sergeant,’ said Thom, frowning. ‘I’ve still got my dissertation to think about. And no, Rook has agreed to accompany me for the sake of his own curiosity. I haven’t changed my mind about anything at all.’

Rook was close enough to Adamo to hear him mutter something that sounded like ‘stubborn little bugger’. Thom had gone back to his scribbling, but the tight set of his mouth told Rook that he’d heard what the old man had said as well.

‘What about you, Rook,’ said Adamo, ‘Do you share your brother’s opinion on the subject of drifting?’

‘I’ve no idea what _you’re_ talkin’ about,’ said Rook. If this was the sort of people Thom had to deal with on a daily basis, no wonder he was fucked in the head.

‘Thom thinks it’s safer if Jaeger co-pilots are not related to each other, despite all evidence of the higher percentage of drift compatibility between relatives,’ said Adamo. He was talking to Rook, but was looking at Thom, who had stopped writing altogether.

‘Drift compatibility is still possible between total strangers,’ Thom pointed out. ‘I would have thought you’d agree with that, considering your own co-pilot. I just don’t think we’ve actually sat down and thought about the psychological ramifications of drifting with someone who is bound to have the same set of memories as you do. The perspective won’t be the same, of course, but there is always the risk of blurring the margins between two different sets of personalities--’

‘If it gets the job done, I don’t see the problem,’ said Adamo, and Rook was just itching to give the old man one right on the face except Adamo had several pounds on him, despite being a few inches shorter, and was built like a human-sized Jaeger himself. Also, Thom probably wouldn’t appreciate it, him being Thom’s superior and all.

‘The problem is whether you could sleep at night knowing that you’re slowly driving these people mad.’ You had to hand it to Thom; he wasn’t one to back down about something he thought was important. Stubborn little bugger or not.

‘Thousands of lives get saved because my boys can pilot the Jaegers,’ said Adamo. From the sound of him, Rook reckoned he’s had the very same argument with Thom before. ‘The pilots know what they’re getting into when they signed up. Hell, most of them know enough not to expect surviving more than three Kaiju encounters. If it keeps San Francisco from happening again, I can assure you that my sleepless nights have nothing to do with worrying over the sanity of my men.’

‘Sorry to interrupt this titillating conversation,’ Rook cut in. Neither Thom nor Adamo were quite as easy to look at as Havemercy, so he let his eyes wander freely as the men had it out. But the talk about Jaeger pilots caught his attention. ‘But how does one go about signing up for this fucking gig?’

*

‘I can’t believe it.’ Thom looked like he was going to say more, but realising that he had no words for what Rook had done, went for repetition instead. ‘I can’t believe it!’

After asking Rook to hand over his papers later, Adamo had asked to be excused, saying something about checking in on his men, although Rook had the feeling the old man just couldn’t take any more of Thom’s lectures. Thom had reluctantly agreed to show Rook the bunkers where the trainees and the raiders stayed when they weren’t out on the field. 

‘Don’t need to,’ said Rook, grinning down at his brother. ‘I take it you’re not gonna see if we’re drift compatible or not?’

‘One, you don’t even know they’ll accept you--’

‘They fucking will, if they know what’s good for them.’

‘And two, even if they do accept you, you’re still going to start from the bottom up.’ Thom had started speaking faster, not giving Rook time to have his say. Imagining himself as the Fucking Voice of Reason, no doubt. ‘What makes you think they’re going to let you anywhere near a Jaeger at this point?’ 

‘Thanks for your fucking vote of confidence, _Professor_ ,’ said Rook. ‘Though it seems to me like piloting a Jaeger’s no rocket science, is it? Plus, they don’t have no time for any good long training. Some people have what it takes, and some people don’t.’

‘You’re saying I don’t,’ said Thom, lower lip pushing out slightly. Rook had seen enough of that expression to realise that Thom wasn’t even aware he was doing it, the tightening of his jaw that was meant to be intimidating but which just made him look like a pouting kid.

‘ _I_ didn’t say nothin’.’

‘I can barely keep myself alive,’ said Thom, with surprising personal insight. ‘As you’ve been kind enough to tell me countless times. I certainly can’t fight, so it would hardly matter if we’re drift compatible or not.’

‘You’d just hold me back,’ Rook agreed. ‘Still, don’t you wanna know what it’s like?’

‘Having someone inside your head and vice versa?’ said Thom, raising his eyebrows. ‘Like getting fucked in the brains, I’d think. Without lubrication.’

*

2.

The thing that most people didn’t see in Rook was that he had a quick mind. Granted that he had decided beforehand that something was well worth the effort of learning, he applied himself to it with a certain kind of precision and insight that Thom had only seen before in some of his more brilliant professors. And so it didn’t really come as a surprise to Thom when Rook rose to raider status one year after he’d signed up. 

If anyone had been born to pilot a Jaeger, it was probably Rook.

The only problem was that Rook didn’t work well with others. There were a handful of other raiders who were drift compatible with him, of course, but stick them both inside a Jaeger and damn Thom if the synchronisation kept on long enough for it to matter. 

‘What the fuck’s the matter with you?’ They were in Rook’s room, and Thom knew his voice could be heard even from outside the steel door, but he was tired and they’d lost three Jaegers to a Knifehead a week before. They needed Rook out in the field with the other raiders, but they could hardly send him out there in a Jaeger all by himself.

‘Careful, Professor, your Mollyrat’s showin’,’ said Rook. He was half lying on his bed, head propped up on one hand. 

‘Fuck off,’ said Thom, but without much heat. He sank on the bed next to Rook’s feet, leaning back so he could look at the ceiling--which was boring and full of worrying little cracks, but was still better than looking at Rook in the face. ‘We’ve found another candidate.’ When Rook didn’t say anything, Thom went on, ‘People haven’t forgotten what happened to Fan, you know.’

‘He had it coming to him.’

‘He was in coma for half a year!’ 

‘Wasn’t my fault he went and chased the rabbit, was it?’ said Rook, sitting up and leaning over so he was only a few inches away from Thom’s face. ‘Don’t you fucking go make me an excuse for other people’s incompetence.’

‘Rook,’ said Thom, trying not to move away from his brother, do anything that Rook could take as a retreat. He could feel the anger in Rook, held back, warm as Rook’s breath against his ear. ‘We need you. Out there. Doing what you should have been good at doing if you’d just fucking sit back and let someone in your head long enough for you both to sync with your Jaeger.’

‘D’you think I fancy cooling my heels here so fucking much?’ said Rook. ‘Everyone else going out there fighting Kaijus--even that fucking Cindy boyfriend of Adamo’s, and they won’t even let me so much as touch Havemercy unless it’s to test another candidate.’

‘Rook--’

‘You know what to do, Thom. So fucking grow a pair and do it.’

Thom shook his head, getting up out of Rook’s bed without another word. Rook made a hissing sound, almost a derisive sigh, but Thom didn’t look back. 

‘We’ll expect you at Havemercy’s docking station at six.’ 

Thom shut Rook’s door behind him, leaning against it, thankful that there was no one in the corridors to see him.

*

The thing that most people didn’t know about Thom was that he was drift compatible with Rook. Rook knew, of course, and maybe Adamo--although Thom suspected Adamo didn’t know as much as _wish_ on his mother’s grave and his own well-tended beard that Thom was drift compatible with Rook. Thom had no idea why it mattered. He wasn’t completely useless in a fight--he grew up in Mollyedge, after all--but he could hardly be expected to actually keep up with Rook.

That same night, Adamo’s co-pilot approached Thom in the mess hall to inform him that Adamo wanted to speak with him later.

‘What about?’ said Thom, stupidly. 

Raider Royston shrugged. ‘Knowing Owen as we both do, I’m guessing you already have an idea what he wants.’

‘But--’

‘I’ll see you out there in the field then, doctor.’ Royston gave Thom a wink before leaving him to work out his options. He could always leave--the research team wasn’t _actually_ part of the military forces, they couldn’t pin him for desertion. But Thom didn’t think he could leave his team hanging just like that. He certainly didn’t want to leave Rook all by himself in the Shatterdome. People would probably get killed, and not by Kaijus either.

Thom sighed and took his time finishing up his Kaiju-blue jelly.

*

‘You probably know what I called you here for,’ said Adamo, before Thom could even shut the door to his office.

‘Yes.’ Thom sat himself in front of Adamo’s desk without waiting for leave. Adamo’s eyes narrowed dangerously, but Thom reckoned Adamo had called Thom in expecting to choose his battles, and so the older man refrained from commenting. I am not one of your men yet, Thom thought. I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

‘And?’

‘I don’t see how you can actually trust me with a costly piece of mechanical weaponry, let alone the lives of human beings,’ said Thom, rubbing a curled finger under his chin. 

‘Hell, I’d probably feel better knowing that you’re going out there with Rook,’ Adamo leaned over his desk, fixing Thom with his dark eyes. ‘He wouldn’t work with the other raiders, but I reckon he’ll work well enough with _you_.’

‘Why do you think that?’ Thom wasn’t trying to be sarcastic, he really wanted to know. 

‘Because other people don’t exist for him,’ said Adamo, simply. ‘They might as well be flies buzzing around for all the good he thinks of them. I exist for him, in a way, because I’m his direct superior. And you... you’re his brother. He trusts you.’

Thom made a noise at the back of his throat.

‘Do you think different?’

‘No,’ said Thom. ‘Fuck me sideways, but no. You understand, Chief Sergeant, that this goes right against my opinions on the subject of drifting?’

‘You didn’t grow up with each other, doctor.’ Adamo smiled. His face reminded Thom of Royston’s whenever he was about to deliver some juicy bit of political news. There were probably a whole lot of reasons why they were co-pilots, after all. ‘I would think this is the perfect case study for you: two brothers with two different sets of memories. Less chances of personality blurring, higher percentage of drift compatibility.’

‘I can’t very well study myself, can I?’ Thom pointed out. ‘Besides which, I think I’m going to be really busy very soon, won’t I? I’d barely have any time left for research.’

Adamo sat back with a smirk. ‘A different kind of research, maybe.’

*

3.

Thom’s leg swung inward, shin connecting painfully with Rook’s arm before Rook reached out with one hand to grasp at Thom’s still-raised thigh, pulling Thom close. His free hand tightened into a fist, aiming a punch at Thom’s face. Thom ducked, paused a beat trying to regain his balance, and then hopped, hooking his other leg around Rook’s waist, arms going around Rook’s shoulders. Rook felt his brother’s warm body flush against his own; the surprising pull of Thom’s weight and their eyes meeting in a haze of surprise, the hot rush of exertion, and, in Thom’s case, a sudden flash of triumph. Rook didn’t have enough time for any sort of reaction other than taking a sharp intake of breath. Thom leaned back and then forward, his forehead connecting with Rook’s hard enough for Rook to _really_ feel it, but not too much that he’d fall to the ground in pain and bring Thom down with him.

‘You fucking _fuck_ ,’ said Rook, hands on Thom’s waist, bending over slightly so Thom could slide down back to the ground. He found himself grinning at his brother; Thom answering with a little smile of his own, face red and breath coming in short gasps. Because he was small and not very strong, Thom had learned to fight fast and hard and dirty, surprising even Rook, who had been counting on some sort of Mollyrat wiliness but hadn’t expected his brother’s aptitude for it.

He found himself wondering if Thom was the same in bed.

The sharp sounds of someone clapping cut through Rook’s thoughts, and he turned around to see Royston moving towards them.

‘Excellent form. One can almost feel the drift,’ said Royston, tilting his head to one side, ‘sizzling.’

‘Thank you, Roy,’ said Adamo, following his co-pilot to stand in front of Rook and Thom. ‘As you’re both aware, Dr Alcibiades has predicted an increase in Kaiju attacks in the next couple of days. That is, an increase in frequency _and_ with less lull time in between attacks. Might as well prepare yourselves against facing two or more Kaijus at once, while you’re at it.’

‘You’re scaring the kids, Owen,’ Royston said, _sotto voce_.

‘Speak for yourself,’ said Rook, at the same time Thom said, ‘That’s re-assuring.’

‘You both know what you’re doing,’ Adamo went on, as if no one had spoken, ‘in your own complimentary way. Don’t make me regret this, Raider Rook. And you’d do the research team invaluable service by not dying just yet, Raider Thom.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Thom, voice flat. Rook turned towards his brother, noting how pale Thom looked. He didn’t sign up for this, Rook thought, and he wouldn’t be out here in the field at all if not for you. If anything happens to him--

Thom looked up at Rook, his lips tightening. ‘Don’t start.’

‘I’ll meet you both in front of Havemercy’s docking station at 0600 hours,’ said Adamo. ‘Dismissed.’

*

0600 hours, Havemercy’s docking station, and the shadows around Thom’s eyes almost as bad as when he’d been writing his doctoral dissertation. Rook had made fluffy cheese omelette and didn’t burn the toast for breakfast, but Thom had said he wasn’t hungry. Never a good sign where Thom was concerned.

‘For fuck’s sake, Thom, it’s just a neural handshake,’ said Rook. ‘Stop thinking too much. You get in my head, I get in yours. We fucking pop back out. Nothing to it.’

‘Fan,’ said Thom, ‘was in coma for half a year.’

‘Yeah, you’ve told me a hundred times already.’ Rook shrugged. ‘You’re not him, though, so fucking shut it.’

Some of the other pilots had already gathered around Havemercy’s docking station to watch Rook and Thom’s first run at drifting. Rook, who’d tried drifting with several candidates before, was used to the whole display. But Thom, who’d only ever seen syncing from the other side of the field, so to speak, looked more nervous by the minute. 

‘What a wreck,’ someone said, from above. Rook turned to look; the Ramanthine brothers were lounging on a platform above the one he and Thom were standing on, and judging from Jeannot’s carefully blank expression (he’d sparred with Rook before, and had come out the worse for it), he’d been the one who’d spoken. Ghislain, Jeannot’s half brother, sensed Rook’s attention and nodded at him. Ghislain was a peaceable man, which suited Rook just fine, seeing as how big Ghislain was and how Rook reckoned Ghislain could take him on easily enough through sheer size alone. 

‘Leave it, Rook,’ said Thom, distracted enough to forget how scared he was.

‘He hasn’t even faced a Kaiju yet,’ one of the Ke-Hans said. They were standing right across from Rook and Thom. One of the taller ones, who had green jade braided through his hair (Iseul, Rook remembered; he had a hard time telling them apart, much to Thom’s irritation--‘They look nothing alike!’--and Rook had learned to identify them by height and hair ornamentations), tossed his head contemptuously. ‘Pathetic.’

‘At least,’ said Rook, loudly, ‘he doesn’t have to fucking hide behind a princess and a bear.’ 

Iseul’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed further at Rook’s insult. The Cobalt’s design was different enough from the other Jaegers that it accommodated three pilots. It was made to play up on the pilots’ strengths, but Rook knew Iseul sometimes resented having to work with his younger brother and the family retainer. He’d heard Iseul complaining in the mess hall sometimes, Ke-Han words that didn’t make sense until Thom (against his better judgement) translated for him.

‘What did you call my brother?’ said Iseul. There was a slight movement on Iseul’s left side: Kouje, the family retainer, had placed one hand over his hip. Involuntary movement of someone used to carrying a sword. Rook braced himself against possible attack. The raiders weren’t allowed to carry arms in the Shatterdome--if at all--but unlike the Ke-Hans, Rook’s choice of blade was easier to conceal.

‘Calm down, punks.’ Rook heard the staccato beat of heels on the metal platform and turned away from the Ke-Hans to face the woman who’d spoken. ‘Couple of minutes late and here you are, pulling at each other’s braids already.’

‘Your timekeeping’s impeccable as always, Malahide,’ said Thom.

‘I do try.’ Malahide gave them a secretive little smile, one that always reminded Rook of a very smug snake. He’d never liked the LOCCENT officer, but he had to admit that she was good at her job. It wouldn’t do to have someone in charge of the command centre that didn’t know a Kaiju from a camel’s arse. And Adamo trusted the little bitch. ‘Better get ready. Adamo’s fit to have kittens.’

‘Ugliest kittens ever born,’ Rook said, putting his helmet on. Beside him, Thom did the same.

*

4.

It started with the feeling of bodiless-ness; being everything and nothing at once, like butter spread thin on a piece of toast. Thom had known to expect as much, from his research. But the actual experience took getting used to. 

And then there was a jolt, as if the drift was sucking them in, followed by a barrage of images emotions sensations which were sometimes familiar, sometimes not, as Thom’s mind began to merge with Rook’s.

‘Go with the flow,’ Adamo had instructed them. ‘Don’t fixate on any particular memory. Don’t hold anything back. And don’t fucking judge.’

‘Syncing at eighty percent.’ Malahide’s voice, as if coming from very far away. ‘Almost there.’

Sounds and smells of eggs frying. A half-finished report. Thom’s body warm against Rook’s. Hours of physical training. The slide of a dagger into unresisting flesh. John sucking men off in the alleys for money. Hilary crying, blood running down his face from a cut on his forehead. Deadfuckingbrotherfoundagainit’smyfaulthe’shereifanythingfucking _happens_ tohim

It happens to you, too, thought Thom. You die with me, or not at all.

Fucking morbid piece of shit, thought Rook. But Thom felt approval and relief and something darker that he didn’t want to name just yet, and he nodded.

‘Syncing at a hundred percent,’ said Malahide, pride in her voice as if it had all been her doing. ‘And we’re on.’

Thom opened his eyes to see the docking station from Havemercy’s readout screen. He turned to Rook, who was looking at him with a curious expression on his face. When their eyes met, Rook grinned and started fiddling with the communications panel placed in front of him. 

‘Havemercy’s a fucking go,’ Rook said.

*


End file.
